


The Row Residence

by TheOvertron



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Canon LGBTQ Character, Gen, Multi, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:40:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24687034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOvertron/pseuds/TheOvertron
Summary: Cullen Row is just your average teenager living in Gotham City. The only difference is that he has a flat full of superheroes.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain/Harper Row, Stephanie Brown/Tim Drake
Kudos: 15





	1. Harper

Cullen Row was splayed out on the sofa, he had his head against one of the shoulder rests, a pillow cushioning it and his feet resting on the other. He was watching anime whilst munching down a packet of crisps. It was a little bit past 10 and he was constantly checking the time, paying more attention to that than the TV. His sister was due home soon and he was determined to stay up until she arrived. He'd be too worried about her to sleep anyway. Sure she wasn't playing at superheroing anymore but it didn't really make living in Gotham any safer.

There was the sound of a key at the front door and seconds later the door opened. From his position on the sofa he didn't have a direct view of the door but he knew it was Harper. The distinct jangle of way to many key rings, the usual groning sigh of relief and of course the flying shoes that always entered the living room before she did.

"You know one of these days you're going to hit the TV!" Cullen said in a nonchalant way (this was what he said every night when Harper came home, hoping she'd learn).

"Whatever little bro, if you had to wear shoes all day whilst keeping on your feet and rushing around like me then you'd understand. There is no better feeling in the world than being able to kick your shoes off and letting your feet breath." Replied Harper as she made her way to the sofa. She grabbed the crisps from Cullen's hands and jumped onto the sofa. Cullen withdrew his legs just quick enough as to not be crushed by his sister's cannonball approach. She grabbed the remote and started flicking through the channels.

"Hey!!" Cullen cried out, "I was watching that!"

"You've seen that episode hundreds of times, I know, I've come home to that exact scene enough to recognise it" Replied Harper. "I'm home now so it's my TV time."

"But it's my favourite episode..." Cullen whispered in defeat. He sat up properly on his half of the sofa and turned his attention to Harper. "Busy day?"

"Yeah, there were a lot of patients today, there was an apartment fire downtown last night. No serious injuries luckily, Batman was able to save everyone, but we had lots of burn victims today receiving treatment. We also had quite a few overdose cases and patients suffering withdrawal symptoms. Must be a new drug in the market. So many bad things happen in this city, sometimes I wish I could do more!" Harper explained, letting out another sigh, this time of frustration, as she sank back into the sofa.

Cullen gazed at his sister, she had her eyes focused on the TV. She brushed her long blue dyed fringe out of her eyes and let it fall to the side of her head, covering the purple dyed hair on her side that she had shaved to probably a number 1 setting. He felt an immense pride in her, despite no longer being an active hero, she still did everything she could to help the city and its citizens.

"You do more than enough Harp! You spend every day at the clinic helping all those people, Leslie is really lucky to have you." He praised whilst giving Harper a gentle nudge on the shoulder.

He saw a curve form on his sister's mouth whilst her cheeks went slightly red, her piercing standing out even more among the red. She readjusted herself on the sofa and went back to changing channels, trying to hide her flushed cheeks.

He smiled, "right, well I think I'll head off to bed now, I was only up waiting for you" and with that he got up, wished his sister good night and made his way to bed.


	2. Cassandra

"Cullen! CULLEN!!"

Cullen woke with a start and tumbled out of bed.

"CULLEN! Where's the first aid kit!" came a panicked voice from the other side of the door.

Cullen pulled on last night's t-shirt that had been left by his bedside and opened the door into the living room.

"Harp? What's going on?" Cullen asked in a confused and groggy voice. She was frantically searching through cupboards and drawers.

"It's Cass! I woke up and she was on top of me panting heavily. At first I just thought it was one of my usual dreams but then I saw blood! I dashed out to get the first aid kit but can't find it!" She explained as she was tearing the kitchen apart after having fully destroyed the living room.

Cullen held back a smirk at Harper's dream fantasy and rushed to check on Cass himself. Harper was far too panicked to be able to think rationally and always blew things out of proportion when it came to Cass so Cullen hoped things weren't actually that bad.

He opened the door to Harper's room, the light was off and the window was open, cold air blowing into the room. Clothing was strewn all over the place and Cullen couldn't tell if that was from Harper's panic or just the usual appearance of her room. 

He switched the light on and spotted Cass' small frame straight away, she was sitting patiently on the edge of Harper's bed. She was wearing a black costume which had gold stripes across her arms and chest. She had her facemask off and her black shoulder length hair (which wasn't much longer than his) was all crumpled and was a whole nother level above hat hair. She waved at Cullen with her left hand as he entered the room and gave him a smile, then silently chuckled and pointed at his t-shirt. In his haste he had put it on inside out and a faint inverted 'R' was just visible through the cloth.

"Hi Cassie" welcomed Cullen, who's eyes then drifted down to her right arm. The sleeve of her costume was torn and a piece of fabric had been wrapped tightly around her arm just above her biceps. There was a large cut just visible under the cloth and most of her arm was covered in blood. There were blood stains on his sister's bed which led out to the window. Cullen's eyes widened and he was about to say something before Cass Interjected by shaking her head and pointing at herself.

"Am fine!... man had knife… didn't see… bandages?" Cass said in broken words. Cullen saw that although there was a lot of blood, the bleeding had mostly stopped thanks to the cloth and was just in need of attention. Cullen headed towards his sister's wardrobe. Harper had burst out of her room so quickly looking for a first aid kit she must have forgotten that they had kept it in her room for when Harper would return injured after a night of superheroing. 

He opened the wardrobe and reached for the top shelf, he stood on his tiptoes and rifled his hand around until he grasped a hold of a large rectangular box. He took it from the shelf and brought it to Cass.

At this point Harper barged into the room, clearly still panicked. "I'm sooo sorry Cass! I've looked everywhere, I can't fi…" her voice trailed off as she saw Cullen with the first aid box.

"Clearly not everywhere Harp, maybe next time try your room first?" Cullen pointed out, half teasing, half being serious. It's just lucky Cass hadn't been too seriously hurt.

Harper must have been really worried as she didn't respond to Cullen and just approached Cass, sitting beside her and putting her arm around her reassuringly in a half hug. Cass could see how concerned Harper was so she leaned into Harper, resting her head against Harper's arm to calm her. Cullen found it amusing that it was Cass calming down Harper despite the situation.

Cass didn't flinch or even make a sound as Cullen stitched up her wound. He had gotten used to stitching up his sister's wounds but she would always kick, fidget and constantly moan. It was a nice change compared to Harper but it kind of unnerved him. He knew why Cass didn't react to the pain though, he had heard a bit about Cassandra Cain's upbringing, about how she was taught to fight and read an opponent's body language instead of learning to speak. How she was taught to be able to ignore and fight through pain and injury. He had a hard time imagining growing up like that and what kind of parent would do that to their child, his father was bad enough already.

After Cullen had cleaned, stitched and wrapped up Cass' wound, Harper took her into the living room whilst Cullen went about cleaning up. He could have complained that Harper should be the one to clean up her own room but decided she should stay with Cass and he'd probably do a better job of it anyway. Besides, it would be one more thing Harper owed him.

As he made his way into the living room he saw Harper and Cass on the sofa. His sister was sat at the end of the sofa watching TV. Cass was lying down, her head resting on Harper's lap and was fast asleep. He made his way to the free armchair and sank down into it. 

"Is this one of your dream fantasies too?" Joked Cullen as he chuckled to himself quietly. 

"Shut up!" Hissed Harper blushing bright red and smiling with embarrassment. She brushed her hand through Cass' hair, stroking her.

"She seemed exhausted, I don't think she's slept for a couple of days. It would explain why some random thug almost got the better of her." Explained Harper, whilst watching Cass sleep. 

"She shouldn't be going on patrols on her own! Tonight could have gone so much worse and we might not have even known!"

Cullen didn't even want to contemplate that and turned his attention to the TV. It was about 4 in the morning now and thanks to tonight's excitement, neither Harper nor Cullen felt tired so they both continued to watch TV for a couple of hours.

Cass didn't sleep for long and by the time Harper left for work in the morning, Cass left with her. Both Cullen and Harper tried to convince Cass to stay and rest but they fell on deaf ears. Cass was wanting to go to the ballet studio, at least that's what they deduced from Cass just saying the word 'ballet'. Harper mentioned that since Cass' first language was body language she found dancing and ballet mesmerising to watch. The ballet studio wasn't far from Thompkins Free Clinic (where Harper worked) so she offered to keep Cass company on the way. Cullen then finished off his breakfast alone and left for school.


	3. Stephanie

Cullen entered the apartment building and made his way back up the flight of stairs towards his apartment, it had been a rough day at school again and he just wanted to settle down on the sofa and forget the harsh words of his fellow peers. He tried not to care what people said about him and his sister, they had grown used to the derogatory terms and constant insults, but the words still hurt. Maybe he'd call his boyfriend over and they could watch anime together and bitch about people. He smiled at the thought of that and hurried towards his door, getting his keys out of his pocket. 

He got to the door and froze. The door was slightly ajar, he definitely remembered locking it this morning as he left and Harper would still be working at the clinic at this time. He slowly opened the door, being careful to not make a sound. He reached for the baseball bat they kept by the front door and made his way into the living room, instantly knowing something was up. It had been clean this morning but now there were clothing and items thrown all over the room. 

Cullen frantically searched the room for the intruder. He spotted that his bedroom door and his sister's door hadn't been opened. That was something at least. He glanced at the other end of the living room, where it opened up into the kitchen. The kitchen wasn't too disturbed but the room next to the kitchen was wide open and Cullen could hear ruffling coming from the room as he slowly made his way towards the door. 

"Heya Roomy!" Came a shrill voice as Stephanie Brown turned around and lunged at Cullen with an embrace, "didn't think I heard ya coming didja? Fancy helping me unpack?"

"Unpack?" Questioned Cullen, looking around the living room, "it looks as though you're already unpacked!" He continued in a slightly annoyed tone.

"Did you know you left the front door open? Or that you left your 'Spoiler Suit' in the middle of the living room? Somebody could have seen it!" exasperated Cullen, pacing the living room and enthusiastically flailing his arms. Steph giggled at this overexaggerated display of anger and dominance. 

Steph only got half way through unpacking and cleaning her mess before see retired to the sofa. Unfortunately she was the messy one of the house and wherever she went she left carnage in her wake, it had been a nice tidy 2 weeks but that was now over.

Steph had claimed the sofa, she was wearing a purple onesie and her long blonde hair was all tied up in a bun. She was watching some soap opera of some sort, they all looked the same to Cullen. He had resigned himself to the armchair and the realisation that he probably wasn't going to be getting any quality time with his boyfriend tonight.

Cullen heard the keys jangling the already unlocked door before they were withdrawn and the door swung open, two shoes flying into the living room.

"Hey Cullen, guess what! There was a new starter today at the clinic. They had long blonde hair and a sexy pair of glasses. He was probably in his late 30s but he had an absolutely chiseled body, at least I assume it's chiseled, I didn't actually get to se…" Harper noticed the third person in the room mid sentence.

"STEPH!! OHMYGOD! YOU'RE BACK!" Screamed Harper as she lunged at Steph not too dissimilar to how Steph had jumped Cullen. They collapsed into the sofa in one giant mess before Harper decided to straighten herself up and take a seat on the sofa next to Steph.

"It's great to see you! How was Barcelona? Tell me everything, especially the naughty bits!" Harper asked excitedly. 

"HARPER!!" Laughed Steph, throwing a pillow at her, smacking Harper right in the face. This gave Cullen a good chuckle.

Steph recomposed herself. "It was fantastic! Amazing architecture, lovely parks, romantic walks on the beach, relaxing swimming in the sea" Steph continued listing off all the activities.

"Sounds fun" replied Harper "but you know I want to know about the saucy stuff! What about your 'ehem' evening activities?" Harper said in an exaggerated seductive tone whilst Cullen rolled his eyes.

"Well me and Tim did bust an entire drug cartel whilst we were there." Stephanie replied in a nonchalant way.

"That's not what I meant Steph!!" Moaned Harper.

"Wait what!?" Cullen blurted out, suddenly paying full attention, "I thought you went on holiday!?"

"We did, but one evening we found ourselves in a bar and Tim overheard talk of an operation going down. You know how he gets so we weren't able to rest until we found the cartel and took them down. It was pretty easy actually, I guess criminals outside of Gotham aren't as experienced in countering good looking crime fighters such as ourselves?" Replied Steph with a smirk on her face.

"So where's Tim now?" Cullen asked, not really hiding his disappointment that he wasn't here himself, he enjoyed Tim Drake's company… and his looks.

"Oh I think he said something about telling Batman about the drug cartel, I swear those two are so alike, it's almost as if they have no off button. It took me ages to convince him to go to Barcelona with me!"

Cullen, sensing that his sister was still eager to interrogate Steph (she really was pretty perverted), decided to take his leave and head for bed. As he closed his door he could hear Harper and Steph continue their conversation in muffled sounds and smiled to himself as he got into bed.


	4. Tim

Cullen woke up the next morning to the smell of sizzling bacon. He climbed out of bed and put a t-shirt on (making sure it was the right way round this time). He opened the door and entered the living room, the smell of bacon guiding him towards the kitchen.

The first thing he noticed was that they had guests. The kitchen table was big enough to seat 6 people, 2 either side and 1 at either end. Steph and Cass were seated on the left hand side, Cass had shuffled her chair along so it was practically connected to Steph's chair and Steph seemed trapped in a hug that Cass was in no rush to relinquish. Cass must have really missed her!

Harper and Tim were sat on the right hand side of the table and Harper seemed to be whispering and nudging him whilst laughing to herself, no doubt teasing him about the stories Steph must have told last night.

"Morning little bro! I made you some bacon, should still be warm" Harper said as she craned her neck around to look over at Cullen.

"Morning Cull" Tim nodded in his direction. Tim was a similar height to Harper and had short black hair which was gelled at the front. He was wearing a red jacket and jeans. 

Steph turned on the chair after Cass released her grip and waved sleepily towards Cullen. Cass stood up and did a slight bow towards Cullen.

Cullen responded with an awkward amalgamation of waving, nodding and bowing and just ended up feeling stupid as he made his way to the free seat with the plate of bacon and 2 slices of toast.

In between mouthfuls he decided to ask what was going on and why everyone was in the apartment for breakfast?

"Well I was planning on popping round last night to help Steph unpack but I spent longer than I intended talking to Batman. As I was leaving the Batcave, Cass must have just come back from patrol because she suddenly jumped me" explained Tim. Cass peaked up upon hearing her name and gave a big smile. Harper shot her a shocked and disapproving stare, upset that Cass would go on patrol the day after receiving such a nasty wound. Cass cowered away from the stare and returned to eating her food.

"Once Cass realised I was back she was eager to see Steph so we headed here a couple of hours ago" finished Tim.

Cullen glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall, it was 7:25 in the morning. A couple of hours ago would have meant 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, meaning both Cass and Tim had been up all night. Was he the only person who conformed to a normal sleep cycle?

"Well guys it's been nice but I've got work in half an hour and I really should have already set off!" Harper called out as she finished the last of her breakfast and rushed to get her shoes on, which were still lying in the middle of the living room from when she came home last night. Cass mimed sleeping towards Harper as she had been up for 24 hours and considering she was still wounded was probably in need of some rest.

"That's fine Cass, you can sleep in my room" Harper shouted by the door, "alright peeps I'm off" and she gave a final wave before shutting the door. As soon as the door closed Tim also got up.

"I… I've got to pop by one of my Robin Nests! I'm needing to urm… update the computer systems, I've neglected them for 2 weeks!" Explained Tim.

"Oh nooo! That's just terrible, how did Gotham cope without us!" Steph said in a sarcastically shocked tone.

"Har har" Tim responded kissing her on her forehead, "see you tonight?" He suddenly shifted his eyes towards Cullen as he turned to the exit.

"Sure, I'll be there" Steph replied, blowing Tim a kiss as he rushed out of the apartment. Cullen thought for a moment they were talking about going on a date but Tim's sudden exit and change of attitude made Cullen think it was more likely something to do with superheroing. Also, that it was something Tim didn't want him knowing about. Cullen was curious but decided to let it go for now. He knew better than to pry secrets from a superhero.

It was just Steph and Cullen left now. 

"Well I've got nothing on today so was thinking of just lounging around, maybe watch some Netflix, you in?" Steph asked Cullen.

"Some of us have a normal social life… or school. Sorry but I've also got to head off in a while. I guess It's just you and Cass. Hold down the fort!" Cullen joked as he started getting ready himself. Steph just signalled to herself as if to say "have you seen me" causing Cullen to chuckle.


	5. Batman

Cullen returned home pretty late. He had gone to his boyfriend's flat after school and had planned on staying over but Harper had called him when she had gotten home, wanting to talk. He was annoyed that she was unwilling to talk about whatever it was over the phone and had reluctantly returned home.

Cullen entered the living room and was confused to find the room dark and the lights off. He switched the light on and looked around. He had expected to walk in on Harper and Steph watching TV but neither of them was around. He was annoyed and wondered if this was some sort of prank. He was about to collapse on the sofa in a huff when he heard sounds coming from Harper's room. He walked up to the room and put his ear against the door to try and make out the voices.

"...ean it Harper, we could do with the bac..." Cullen heard a male voice talking.

"...an't ask me for this! I don't want to wor…" Cullen heard Harper respond.

"...ering skills could come in use. Orphan and Spoiler alre..." The male voice mentioned Cass & Steph's code names. Cullen was starting to get an idea of what was happening.

"...dy said no to Tim! I promised Cullen. Sure, I'd love to help but I don't ev…' Cullen felt a sudden pit in his stomach at the sound of his name and felt kind of bad about eavesdropping.

"...eeting in an hour, think it over!" Cullen thought that last bit sounded more like a demand rather than a plead. He continued to listen for a while but there were no more sounds coming from the room. He was debating whether to go in or not when suddenly the door flew open. The sudden appearance of Harper in front of him made him jump, which in turn made her jump.

At any other time it would have been an amusing moment but Cullen could see red around his sister's eyes and they were still a bit wet, clear signs that she had been crying.

"Are you alright Harp?" Cullen asked in a concerned voice, putting a hand on his sister's shoulder. Harper drew Cullen into a hug and squeezed tightly.

"Yeah thanks Cull. Just forgot how demanding Batman can be." Harper said with a sniff.

BATMAN! Batman had just been in their apartment! Cullen tried to hide his mini fanboy freakout but Harper totally caught it and pulled away from the hug.

"Yes yes, that was Batman in my bedroom. You jealous?" Harper jokingly asked. 

"Haha nah, I spent an entire day with Midnighter once who is basically a super sexy, super badass, super gay Batman. I'm now a convert!" Cullen replied.

"So what was that with Batman?" Cullen asked, getting back on topic.

"It was about the drug dealers Tim busted in Barcelona. Apparently the drugs have reached Gotham. Batman tracked them down to two locations and is wanting to hit them simultaneously. He's off to one of them with Tim and told Cass and Steph to hit the other. He asked if I could back them up as Cass hasn't fully recovered yet." Explained Harper.

"But he knows you've hung up the cape. Why would he ask this of you?" Cullen asked, slightly annoyed. He was never against Harper being a vigilante but he was beyond relieved when she told him she was giving it up.

"I know but he's Batman! And he's asking for my help! I can't just ignore him. What if Cass and Steph really need my help?" Harper said, trying to convince herself more than Cullen.

"I won't let you be guilted by Batman! I'll kick his ass! I don't care who he is, no one makes my sister cry and gets away with it. I won't let you make a decision based on guilt." Argued Cullen. Tim, Cass and Steph may work with Batman but Harper had never let him dictate what she could and couldn't do and Cullen wasn't about to let that start now.

The image of Cullen facing off against Batman made Harper smile but she looked down to the floor afterwards with an upset expression before returning her gaze to Cullen.

"You say I shouldn't make a decision based on guilt but whatever I do I feel guilty. The reason I gave up crime fighting was because after the way we lost our mom I'd never want to risk leaving you alone in the world. But when I stay, I'm up all night worrying about the girls. When Cass was injured the other night I was terrified and couldn't even think straight!" Harper's true feelings came pouring out. Cullen hadn't realised that she had been keeping these thoughts in since giving up crime fighting. This started making Cullen feel guilty and found the irony of being guilted amusing.

Cullen thought about Cass and Steph. Sure, he cared for his friends and hoped they never got hurt. But he had never thought of how that would feel if he was capable of helping out. He looked into his sister's eyes and thought about what he'd do to help her.

"I love you sis! You're strong, smart and caring. When you chose to go out of your way to help people I was 100% behind you and so proud of you. If you feel like you need to go back out there I will fully support that decision." Cullen said, making every word count. He could see an enormous burden being lifted from his sister as she let the tears she had been holding back loose as she wrapped her arms around Cullen. She didn't even have to say anything, Cullen knew how much she appreciated those words.

"But I have one condition!" Cullen added, "If you're going out I'm helping too! I also want to be helpful to Cass and Steph. Robin linked your computers with his network right? I shall be in your ears the whole time and let you know what you're up against."

Harper wiped away her tears with a smile and nodded. She headed towards her wardrobe. She had gotten rid of her outfit when she retired from being Bluebird but her original suit was still lying around. She retrieved it and carried it towards her brother.

"Thanks little bro, I'll feel a whole more confident out there knowing you have my back." Harper started putting on the suit as Cullen sat down at the computers and switched them on. It didn't take long for them to fully switch on, whatever network Tim had installed made it run super fast and efficiently.

Cullen spun around on the chair to face his sister. She had just finished putting the costume on, it was a black suit not too dissimilar to Catwoman's outfit. Harper had originally been inspired by Catwoman's suit before Tim had provided her with a more high-tech outfit. The suit covered her entire body and went over her head, only leaving her face and blue fringe visible. She wasn't likely to be recognised and Tim would probably upgrade her costume with a mask again anyway.

The two siblings looked at each other in silence for a moment, both of them wanting to talk more but also knowing that neither really had anything more to say. They had both made up their minds, in conclusion Batman was a jerk and they were going to go help their friends.

Harper headed for the window and opened it. Cullen watched as his sister started to climb out the window, there was a weird knot in his stomach and he felt like he needed to say something or at least see her off with a smile.

"Love you, big sister" Cullen said supportingly to his sister's back "...be safe" he hesitantly added. Harper smiled from her perched position on the windowsill, she had been feeling kind of nervous suddenly jumping back into the superhero life and her brother's words gave her strength.

"Cross my heart" Harper replied, as she dove out the window. Cullen watched as his sister disappeared along the rooftops, then sat down by the computer. He put a comlink to his ear and spoke through the speaker.

"Okay sis, let's do this!"


End file.
